2006 Wine of the Year

2006 marks the seventh naming of Jeremy Oliver’s Wine of the Year.

In sequence, the previous winners have been Rosemount Estate’s 1996 Mountain Blue Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon, Cullen’s 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 1998, Hardy’s Eileen Hardy Shiraz 1998, Mount Mary Quintet 2000, Lake’s Folly’s Cabernet Blend 2001 and Wolf Blass Platinum Label Shiraz 2001. The finalists for this award are the ten best current release Australian wines I have tasted throughout the previous year.

While quality clearly remains paramount in this choice, the winning wine must be commercially available around or shortly after the time of publication and represent some special characteristic of individuality, innovation, maturity or longevity. Wines selected must make a positive statement about style, terroir and winemaking direction.

Here are the finalists for Jeremy Oliver’s 2005 Wine of the Year, including the winner itself.

Wine of the Year



Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2002 97

If you think you’ve seen everything that Leeuwin Estate could throw at its Art Series Chardonnay, think again. The 2002 vintage of this stellar wine will earn the right to be classed amongst the very greatest of its kind. One of the most drinkable wines I have tasted for some time, it is complete, satisfying, seductive and very desirable. Every taste conjures something else – another flavour, another texture, another association. It’s effortless, its delicious and it’s the most complete Leeuwin Estate I can ever remember at this stage of its development. While wines like the 2001 might live for longer, this will give incredible pleasure before it ultimately fades.

Its alluring bouquet opens with fresh primary aromas of quince, grapefruit, cumquat and spicy, rather perfumed oak, with lightly herbal undertones of lime juice and wheatmeal. Frankly, though, it’s the palate that is simply astonishing. It’s creamy, juicy and vibrant, delivering a seamless expression of fruit that is initially restrained, but which builds steadily towards a lingering crescendo of assertive, powerful Margaret River chardonnay, without ever losing its effortless elegance and fineness. While there’s a hint of minerality at the finish and a suggestion of bacon-like malolactic influence, this wine is all about brightness and intensity, sublime control and integration. Its expression and definition of stonefruit, citrus and melon chardonnay fruit is near perfect, while its babyfat-like viscosity eases into a lingering finish of tautness and assertive definition.

Given the typical Leeuwin Estate treatment of 100 barrel fermentation and battonage in brand new mainly Seguin-Moreau oak, it’s from a season rather succinctly described by its maker Bob Cartwright as ‘very good, with a long, cool and dry summer’. When you make wine as good as this, there’s absolutely no need to waste words whatsoever.

Finalists



Bindi Quartz Chardonnay 2003 97

It’s a huge effort for this Bindi wine to earn a place here in two consecutive years. Superior even to the 2002 vintage of Quartz Chardonnay, it reveals exemplary fruit intensity beautifully integrated with nutty, biscuity oak and bound by a brittle, mineral acidity. Bindi’s Quartz offers some of the raciness of Chablis, but its palate builds towards a greater level of depth and richness. Michael Dhillon and Stuart Anderson, take a bow.

Clarendon Hills Astralis Syrah 2003 97

Astralis is a very expensive cult wine that in my opinion has never quite justified the noise it has created on the basis of quality alone. That changes with the 2003 vintage, a massively structured wine that somehow retains a sense of balance and harmony. While I believe some Clarendon Hills wines have been tailored to a particular over-ripe and porty taste, there is no hint of dead grapes or dehydration about this outstanding wine and its incredible intensity of genuinely ripe fruit.

Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2004 97

Tim Kirk has done it again. Here is a wine that marries the depth of fruit and expression found in the excellent 2003 vintage with the tightness and ethereal qualities of the 2002. Perfectly balanced and harmonious, it’s such a well-integrated blend that the viognier is barely perceptible.

Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2002 97

A spectacular return to form after several troubled vintages. This is Eden Valley shiraz at its finest – a finely crafted and tightly focused wine whose deeply peppered dark berry fruit, coconut ice-like oak and tight-knit tannins are perfectly integrated and seamless. There’s nothing out of place, and the wine should cellar well for the long term.

Jacob’s Creek Steingarten Riesling 2002 97

Another Australian riesling with Austrian pretensions, yet which doesn’t sacrifice anything of its Eden Valley identity. This wine surely represents the future for riesling in this country, with its complex and slightly funky expression of citrusy fruit, classical Eden Valley powdery undertones and slatey, mineral finish. An absolute class act.

Penfolds Bin 60A Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2004 98

The recreation of the 1962 Bin 60A might well indeed live up to the enormous reputation of its role model. A blend of Block 20 Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon with Koonunga Hill and Kalimna Vineyard shiraz from the Barossa, this exceptionally profound and deeply layered wine has everything it could possibly need to develop into a long-term classic. I can’t wait to get another look at this wine, to see more clearly what lies beneath its extraordinary depth of fruit.

Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 97

Another stunner from Penfolds, this time sourced exclusively from the ancient Block 42 cabernet sauvignon vineyard, which Penfolds believes is the oldest vineyard in the world of this variety still in commercial production. It’s an extraordinary wine, saturated with brooding black fruits and the powerful tannin this vineyard also delivered in benchmark wines like the 1953 Grange Cabernet and the 1964 Bin 707.

Seppelt St Peters Shiraz 2002 98

There’s a strong movement amongst several of Australia’s best makers of shiraz towards finer, more elegant and savoury expressions of the variety, and none have achieved this better than the Seppelt team’s efforts with this wine. A brilliant expression of these old vineyards’ terroir, it’s an effortless, seamless wine of purity and strength.

Wendouree Shiraz 2002 97

Wendouree lives up to its stellar reputation with this remarkable wine. From a cooler season, its retains the essential strength associated with this label, but delivers a pristine and deeply concentrated expression of slightly minty fruit, framed by typically robust tannins. Unlike popular expectations of Wendouree wines, this is dead easy to drink now. However, any responsible advice would be to cellar it for a long, long time. Please login to post comment